It can also be difficult to compare classics to each other because today, people will use certain classics to measure their greatness beside another piece of media to review it. Classics, especially when discussing literature and film, create the taste that people use to judge and criticize them. Someone may enjoy “Pride and Prejudice,” yet not enjoy “Wuthering Heights” simply because of the writing style, the period or the characters. (Veronica Dallas)
Vanshika Mohnani, president of Wordcraft, Literary society of Ramjas College, notes, “I feel our generation is not ignorant of things, they have this hunger of knowing everything. Even these trending bookstagram reels and other videos make people interested in reading more. I have read a lot of classics like Mrs Dalloway, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Macbeth, Jane Eyre, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein.” (Sara Siddiqui)
They cite two favorite works of classical literature, Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji” and Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” as famous examples of love stories that also reveal deep hierarchical divisions within society.Similarly, Yamazaki’s characters often struggle to forge relationships within the constraints of Japanese culture. (Kris Kosaka)
Regardless, Scodelario finally managed to prove to herself that she could do a period piece, but only after her agent convinced her to watch Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, and she met the director for the drink that she agreed to Wuthering Heights. She said, “I really wanted to open up and tell her everything about me. And the film she’s created isn’t a period film: it’s a new genre that is timeless”.Unlike Emma, which caused the actor to feel she didn’t match the aesthetic of a Victorian literature adaptation, Arnold’s Wuthering Heights was gritty and realistic, but the crucial thing for Scodelario had to do with casting, as she said, “The biggest thing I think Andrea has done was keeping the characters young. If you fall in love at that age, it’s very different to falling in love later”.Comparing these feelings to her fervid two-year affair with Skins co-star Jack O’Connell, she understood exactly what Cathy was going through, similar to her relating to Effy’s experiences, about which she said, “I was completely in love with him. If he’d told me to jump off a bridge, I would have. We were so young and going through so much, it was a strange togetherness we had. It was intense and magical and horrible.” (Gaby Shedwick)
York Settlement Community Players presentby Sarah GordonDirector: Claire MorleyWith Lara Stafford, Jess Murray, Millie Rhodes, Nick Patrick Jones, Jon Cook, Maggie Smales, and Pamela Gourley.Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 October.Theatre@41, MonkgateCharlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other became known as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne.York Settlement Community Players present Sarah Gordon’s new and exciting play, which premiered at The National Theatre in 2024. Underdog is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters like you’ve never seen them before!This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words. It’s about sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition.An Amateur production presented by special arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd.
Women in Texas were once in the thrall of Charlotte Brontë and her literary masterpiece Jane Eyre. Back in the mid-1800s, Texans, along with the reading public as a whole, made the novel an immediate bestseller when it was published in 1848.Seven years later, a schoolteacher organized the Texas Brontë Club, a milestone that created a literary gathering place and boasted a lending library that years later evolved into the Victoria Public Library. Though it ultimately became a civic organization that did good works in communities, books continued to hold a prominent place in the society’s programs. The group thrived well into the 20th century, retaining its standing as the oldest literary group in the state and even once hosting a lecture by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.Fast forward to 2026. Today the great Victorian-era romance novel with a pioneering feminist message has earned a new place in Texas history —an infamous one— with four school districts banning it as unsuitable for younger readers. This is happening, it’s worth noting, at the same time that China made Jane Eyre compulsory reading for 14 and 15 year olds. Why? As a counter to social media and its touting of “materialistic culture and money.”You’re not alone if the Texas ban on Jane Eyre is a head scratcher. After all, the book is consistently near the top of major literary canons, has been on school reading lists, likely for over a century, has no steamy content at all, and has been adapted for as many as 25 to 30 movies and television series, most rated PG. [...]So why did four school districts in Texas decide to remove this celebrated, classic novel from its libraries, picking up the aging thread of distaste from Victorian critics?The 19th century’s favorite orphan is likely a casualty of the Texas legislature. Since the passage of the SB 13 law in 2025, school administrators and librarians have found it impossible to confidently interpret the labels “profane” and “indecent” — part of the new, lower bar for what makes a book bannable in Texas. As a result, some districts have placed restrictions on anything written for adults, including classics.Restrictions across four districts include banned pending investigation (removed from shelves, sometimes indefinitely); restricted to upper grade levels; and limiting only to AP English students.Some people will say age restrictions are normal, even good sense. The case of Jane Eyre shows the harm these measures can do. Young readers who become lifelong readers often benefit from reading above grade level, reading challenging prose that gives them a window into history. Denying them that opportunity limits their horizons.“Generations of young people, especially young women, have discovered a love of classic literature through the works of the Brontë sisters, reading above grade level to do so,” said Philomena Polefone, a senior manager of PEN’s Freedom to Read team and an author of the recent report. “Jane Eyre is a book that inspires young people to love reading and brings them into the library.What continues to be clear during Banned Books Week and every week is that book bans pose a threat not only to literacy and education but to democracy and pluralism.At PEN America, we believe that all students — and all parents — benefit when kids are given more choices of what to read, and encouraged to read freely. To those who spend time concocting dubious reasons to ban books, or (this being the 21st century) having AI do it for them, perhaps it’s time to heed the advice of Jane Eyre’s friend Helen Burns, who says: “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” (Suzanne Trimel)
Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided and approved me, I turn to another class; a small one, so far as I know, but not, therefore, to be overlooked. I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as “Jane Eyre:” in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of crime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth. I would suggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions; I would remind them of certain simple truths.Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. There is—I repeat it—a difference; and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them.
Caird’s justification for this reduction is compelling. In an interview, he described Jane Eyre as “fundamentally an intimate, emotional, small-scale work”, pointing to the novel’s first-person narration and its intensely interior focus.But Jane Eyre is not a “small-scale work”. Certainly, Jane’s journey takes her through only a handful of Yorkshire houses and a school. Yet Brontë’s imagination repeatedly exceeds these confines. The novel conjures supernatural forces, wild landscapes and sweeping moorland. Its emotional world is equally expansive, moving from the warmth of passion to the terror of fire and freezing wastes. Its Yorkshire landscapes convey a strange, almost supernatural power. The result is a novel that constantly stretches beyond the limits of Jane’s confined domestic world. [...]Taking my seat at Southwark Playhouse, I was struck by how effectively Morgan Large’s set balances intimacy with gothic grandeur. It captures the small scale Caird sought for this chamber production, while suggesting a much wider and eerier world beyond the stage.The palette is black and white. The set backdrop is a video screen showing a slowly moving landscape of clouds, bare trees and wintry moorland. There is even a bit of mist rising.Stage right and left are clothes horses draped with everyday cloaks, pristine white shirts, nightshirts and caps. These have a prosaic quality and bring the audience close to a theatrical version of Brönte’s domestic realism. However, even these well-starched clothes are imbued with a ghostly quality, bereft as they are of wearers and lit in sharp contrast to the black backdrop. It is a clever combination of the ghostly and the mundane, which renders the most familiar things uncanny.Jane Eyre: a Musical abounds in excellent performances, exciting staging and orchestration, but despite the verve of the ensemble cast and the vocal crescendos, the heart rarely skips a beat in fear – and certainly not in gothic terror.This is largely due to the awkwardness and confusion in the representation of Bertha, who is little more than an obstacle in Jane and Rochester’s romance. Played by Hannah Lindsay, she appears veiled in pale lace wedding clothes, her face obscured. Even when she attacks Rochester, Lindsay’s long blonde curls hide her face.Brönte’s creation of the violent, swollen-featured, monstrous Bertha who also has bad breath and hasn’t brushed her hair is problematic to a modern audience. She is Creole and she is insane. What may once have appeared as a gothic representation of madness, now raises difficult questions about race, colonialism, gender and confinement.Even without having read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) or the seminal feminist study The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), modern audiences approach Bertha with a different understanding of colonial history than that of Brontë’s time.However, the answer is not to erase Bertha as a gothic force, which this production does. At one point we even see Bertha carrying a doll. If directors John Caird and Megan McGinnis choose to depict her as a childish innocent our sympathies must lie with her – but this sympathy goes nowhere and she is still removed as an obstacle to the romantic plot.Jane Eyre is so rich in imagery and intricate plot that three hours can never do it justice. However, more could have been done in this production.The musical offers a touching love story and a moving tale of a young woman’s struggles. Yet the novel’s much darker narrative is absent. Brontë creates this shadow narrative through gothic elements including dreams, Bessie’s local folklore and folk song, premonitions and monstrous night visitations, mysterious voices and uncanny laughter. A reference to Bessie’s folksong about the “orphan child” crossing the cold moors could have enriched the music.Most crucially, Brontë mirrors Bertha and Jane throughout the novel, but this mirroring is largely absent from the production. That is particularly striking because of the set’s prominent bird imagery. A plinth around three sides of the stage bears Jane’s declaration to Rochester: “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” [...]The production’s confused portrayal of Bertha leaves little room for this gothic threat. Yet the novel repeatedly uses images of wildness and savagery to align the two women. These connections matter, particularly when Bertha’s role is so heavily downplayed.The musical misses the alignment of the two women. In Sweet Liberty, Jane (played beautifully by Charlie Burn) sings of “boundless skies” and declares: “I will fly.” Yet there is no reference to Bertha, the woman literally confined at Thornfield who ultimately flies from its roof. Bertha has no voice, and she certainly does not get a song. (Sophie Gilmartin)
Jane Eyre (2011)It's quite possible that Cary Joji Fuku[n]aga's 2011 adaptation of "Jane Eyre," the massively influential dark romance written by Charlotte Brontë, flew under your radar upon its release. If you love "Verity," though, this is another pick — like "Rebecca" — where you can clearly see the story's influence on writers like Colleen Hoover. Mia Wasikowska plays the titular Jane, who endured a difficult childhood as an orphan and thinks that her life will be forever changed when, as an adult, she meets the dashing and wealthy Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender) while working as a governess at his property of Thornfield Hall. Despite Mr. Rochester's apparent betrothal to the beautiful Blanche Ingram (Imogen Poots), Jane finds herself developing feelings for him, and he returns them ardently.There's just one small problem, and it has to do with an attic and a spate of small fires — and even though "Jane Eyre" is an old story that's probably familiar to most people, we won't get into the specifics just in case you don't know how this wonderfully twisted story ends. Wasikowska and Fassbender are excellent and flanked by great performers like Dame Judi Dench, Jamie Bell, Sally Hawkins, Tamzin Merchant, and Simon McBurney, making this adaptation of "Jane Eyre" a worthy watch once you're finished with "Verity." (Nina Starner)
The divisive adaptation from the director of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman is finally on Prime Video for anyone looking for something other than horror this October. How does one even begin to describe this lavish, arguably ridiculous film? You kinda need to see it for yourself and decide what you think of the work of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in a movie that equal numbers of people loved and hated when it dropped in February of this year. (Brian Tallerico)
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThe only published novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is the beautifully crafted, haunting story of the enthusiastic love between the tortured Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of Heathcliff’s benefactor.First published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights was remarkable for its unflinching and honest portrayal of obsessive love and its accompanying cruelty, which was out of character for novels of the era.It’s been adapted for the stage and screen many times, most recently as a major motion picture starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.For me the adaptation was a step too far away from the original.I love Margot but she can no longer pass as a 20-year-old, and the wardrobe was not something you would have seen from a wealthy family in the Yorkshire Moors.There must be an authentic honesty to our classics, and if you do want to watch an adaptation, I would go for the Tom Hardy 2009 version.I give this latest adaptation 5/10 and the 2009 adaptation 8.5/10. (Julie Chessman)
Sense and Sensibility (2026) proves you don't need a varnished scene of oral sex backed by the latest Charli XCX track to demonstrate an undying passion between lovers. Georgia Oakley's Austen adaptation has everything Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights (2026) lacked. (Alice Lewis)
Saturday 10th October, 11:00 amIlkley Grammar School, Cowpasture Rd, Ilkley LS29 8TR, United KingdomJoin us for a book group discussion led by writer and Programme Manager at First Story Naomi Frisby on the gothic masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Read the book, talk about it with your friends or your regular book group, then come to this Saturday morning session to share your thoughts with other booklovers.
SHEShe lives on a moor in the north.She lives alone.Spring opens like a blade there.I travel all day on trains and bring a lot of books—some for my mother, some for meincluding The Collected Works Of Emily Brontë.This is my favourite author.Also my main fear, which I mean to confront.Whenever I visit my motherI feel I am turning into Emily Brontë,my lonely life around me like a moor,my ungainly body stumping over the mud flats with a look of transformationthat dies when I come in the kitchen door.What meat is it, Emily, we need?
Glass, Irony and God, Carson's 1995 book, features the celebrated poem The Glass Essay, which is more than 30 pages long and tells the story of a love affair coming to an end through a reading of Emily Brontë's poetry.In the Nobel Prize ceremony, it was praised by the Swedish Academy for demonstrating "the potential of the long poem where genre boundaries are seen to blur." (Talia Kliot)
Glass, Irony & God (1995)This collection of three narrative poems contains “The Glass Essay,” a 36-page epic that interweaves the end of a romantic relationship with musings on Emily Brönte, whom Carson describes as a perpetual “whacher” — a deliberate misspelling — who constantly observes the English moors that inspired her novel “Wuthering Heights.” In Brönte, Carson finds kinship and a means of verbalizing her heartbreak. The author Anthony Doerr has referred to “The Glass Essay” as his favorite poem, writing that “it feels to me like a thousand floodlights switching on.” (Ash Wu)
The 1990s brought some of her most celebrated work. "The Glass Essay," from Glass, Irony, and God (1995), shows what the long poem can do when genre lines blur. It is a verse narrative about grief and unrequited love.A woman abandoned by her husband travels to see her lonely mother on the moors, carrying the works of her favourite writer, Emily Brontë. Brontë's moorland and inner life are woven through the text, and the poem becomes at once a reading of Brontë and an essay on abandonment.
"You remember too much,my mother said to me recently.Why hold onto all that? And I said,Where can I put it down?"This quote is from the long, lyrical poem "The Glass Essay" published in Anne Carson's 1995 collection "Glass, Irony and God" — an entry point into the works of the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature laureate.In the poem, the narrator explores the burden of memory and obsessive desire after a failed love affair, all while regularly reflecting on Emily Brontë — an author renowned for her intense literary depiction of destructive and passionate love in "Wuthering Heights." (Elizabeth Grenier)
Carson's wide-ranging influences, from the ancient Greeks to John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte, lead "to playful and ironic works that move not only between classical and modern poetry but also between different genres and art forms," Olsson said. (Pontus Lundahl)
Among the works highlighted by the Nobel Committee was The Glass Essay (1995), a long poem about a woman recovering from a failed relationship who visits her mother in the moorlands, bringing with her the writings of Emily Bronte.Olsson said the work demonstrated Carson's ability to combine poetry, storytelling and literary criticism, with the narrator's experiences becoming entwined with those of her mother and Bronte.“The poetry needs the story, and the story is in turn given energy by the leaps and scene shifts of poetry,” he said. (William Mullally)
“Reader, I married him,” opens the last chapter of “Jane Eyre”. That famous line is music to Chinese officials’ ears. Since September the Victorian-era Bildungsroman by Charlotte Brontë has become compulsory reading for every Chinese student in secondary school. The government happens to be keen to boost marriage rates and babymaking, and worries about women’s rising demand for divorces. The independent-minded heroine, Ms Eyre, who rejects two proposals before ultimately marrying and bearing a son, has a thing or two to teach young Chinese, the Communist Party thinks.By some estimates, China’s population of 1.4bn could be 250m lower by 2050. So the party, having once imposed strict limits on births, is now intensifying efforts to build a “birth-friendly society”. It isn’t doing well. In the first half of 2026 marriage rates fell by 7.5%, while divorce rates climbed by 3.9%. Last year births were at a historic low: less than half the number a decade earlier.In June the government launched a two-month campaign to crack down on microdramas that promote “money worship” and “distorted marriage values”. The wildly popular short videos often tell absurd or fantastical stories, including the popular genre of badao zongcai which involve domineering CEOs who sweep poor women off their feet (this type particularly appeals to those who think social mobility is becoming much harder in China).So why promote “Jane Eyre”? Some commenters on social media call it a prototype of badao zongcai. In the book, Ms Eyre, a governess from a poor background, captures the heart of her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester. His imperious, moody air fits that of the short-videos’ stereotype CEO. But a recent column in Beijing Daily, an official newspaper, makes the point clear: “Jane believes that love should be built on spiritual equality rather than social status, wealth or appearance. Only when two people truly love one another can they attain genuine happiness.”Some parents object to students in their mid-teens having to study a book so centred on love, Beijing Daily admits. But “Jane Eyre” is deeply ingrained in China’s literary consciousness: the first translation appeared in 1917. An adaptation of it was among the first Western films shown in China after the death of Mao in 1976. President Xi Jinping mentioned the book in 2015 during a visit to Britain. A musical version was performed in Beijing this week. Ms Eyre seemed feisty to Victorians. But she is a far cry from feminists in China today whom Mr Xi sees as a threat to procreation.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Antoinette Cosway is a Creole heiress living in 19th-century Jamaica. After Antoinette’s brother dies in a house fire, grief drives their mother mad, and Antoinette is left alone to face a hostile world. An arranged marriage brings her under the control of the cruel and capricious Mr. Rochester who renames her Bertha, isolates her from the outside world and eventually takes her to his native England, where a dark future awaits. Published in 1966, “Wide Sargasso Sea” is a classic in its own right, bringing immense humanity and empathy to the “madwoman in the attic” of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.”
For as long as film has been around, people have been anxious about what it can do. To understand this anxiety, look to literature: a medium we have been anxious about for a much longer time. In The Republic, Plato cautions that “the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts. . . . A young person cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal.” Over two thousand years later, Charlotte Brontë wrote a similar warning beside Shakespeare and Byron’s names on her list of recommended reading for a friend. “Don’t be startled at the names,” she cautioned Ellen Nussey. “You will know how to choose the good, and to avoid the evil.” But should she get waylaid, Brontë discouraged her from reading the comedies. In her own folios, she tore them out.Notice her precision: read Shakespeare, but skip the comedies. She is familiar with what she critiques. To decide what not to read, one must first know what is in those books – and then, having done so, decide whether or not to put them down. (Iris Chen)
'Wuthering Heights'The Adaptation Was Accused of Turning a Dark Story Into a Traditional RomanceWhy Wuthering Heights Was Divisive: From the second news broke that Jacob Elordi was cast as Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights was accused of whitewashing its lead character. With each new piece of promotional material, it became clear that director Emerald Fennell's take on Wuthering Heights would differ significantly from the original source material, opting for a more straightforward forbidden romance that forgoes the book's traditional ending. This earned the film criticism at release, but Wuthering Heights has so far proved to be the biggest hit of WB's 2026 slate, making a reported profit of $40 million (via Variety).Why It's Worth Watching: The criticism that Wuthering Heights isn't a faithful adaptation of the book is valid, but no film adaptation has chosen to depict the book's second half, so that fault is not exclusive to the 2026 version. There is something magical about seeing a female filmmaker be given the freedom and budget by a studio to turn a deeply personal passion project into a major studio production. In the end, Wuthering Heights is a gorgeous film in terms of production design and cinematography, with a fantastic set of original songs by Charlie [sic] XCX. (Richard Fink)
Written by Don ZolidisOctober 9th - 25thOlympic Theatre Arts414 N Sequim AveSequim, WA 98382 US1835. Northern England. The moors. A terrifying phantom has appeared at the Roe Head School for Girls, terrorizing its students and driving the school near to extinction. It’s up to star pupil Emily Brontë, and her sisters Anne and Charlotte, to discern the true nature of the haunting, using their unique talents—which happen to include necromancy. A gothic, hilarious ride through English literature that needs magic, ghosts, and fog; featuring an undead goose, a lovesick ghost, and a talking meat pudding.
Author of YA murder-mysteries including This Book Kills, and YA Book Prize and Nibbie shortlistee Ravena Guron is to pen a murder-mystery retelling of Jane Eyre, after being approached with the idea by Scholastic. (Maia Snow)
Novelist Anjet Daanje has been tipped as a serious contender for the Nobel prize in literature and, from her 2022 work The Song of Stork and Dromedary, for very good reason.Published in Dutch as Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris, the book is loosely based on the life of Emily Brontë, the author of Wuthering Heights. The work opens in 1847, with a villager laying out the body of Eliza May Drayden, who, like Brontë, has written a book widely derided at the time it was published but would go on to become a classic.The opening scene is tinged with the Gothic horror of Wuthering Heights, Drayden’s eyes refuse to close for her burial.The next 650 pages follow 11 interconnect stories that orbit around Drayden, and her sister Millicent, the fictionalised Charlotte Brontë who authored of Jane Eyre. Similar again to Wuthering Heights, all are largely set on the moors in England, though the final story takes the reader to the Daanje’s hometown of Groningen.Rather than a traditional narrative, the book is written like an expansive biography, incorporating news articles, excerpts from diaries, letters, citations from fictional biographies and even parts of Drayden’s novel.Each of the tales could be novellas in their own right, vivid and sometimes nail-biting, sending the reader off on tangents such as the mistreatment of two half-German sisters during the Second World War, or a pair of French half-sisters whose shared father creates a wedge between them.The nature of sisterhood and the relationship between various female characters is one of the central themes of The Song of Stork and Dromedary. The work also reflects on the status of women at different times across the novel’s 200-year span.Death is another important theme. Drayden’s death, with which the book opens, is an event that brings characters together but also tears them apart. [...]The Song of Stork and Dromedary took home both the Boekenbon Literature Prize and the Libris Literature Prize, the first book to ever net both awards. It was named the Best Book of the Century by the NRC newspaper. The English translation was published this year.In 2023, Daanje was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her oeuvre.The book was translated by David McKay, who also translated War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans and Multatuli’s Max Havelaar. He renders the complicated work thoughtfully, retaining Daanje’s character.The Song of Stork and Dromedary is compelling and brilliant, and the author is worthy of the highest honour in literature. (Molly Quell)
Jane Eyre (2006)Few novels have done more for the gothic imagination than Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The 2006 adaptation leans into all the familiar pleasures of Brontë’s world, from a remote country house, its brooding master and coincidentally love interest and a dark past hidden behind closed doors. Ruth Wilson brings a sharp intelligence to Jane, while Toby Stephens gives Rochester enough danger to keep their romance from becoming too comfortable. Dark and emotionally charged, this is a Jane Eyre that understands the gothic works best. (Naina Zilbermints)
After a windier road than expected, Paramount and Warner are now one, under the banner of Skydance, and the film industry is set for a shake-up [...]That’s where executives like the departed De Luca and Abdy would have come in handy. Their tenure at Warner was characterized by both risks and variety befitting one of Hollywood’s most recognizable and prestigious movie studios. They greenlit two beloved smash-hit horror movies with Sinners and Weapons. The studio won a best picture Oscar – their first in over a decade – with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. They let indie talents play in a big-studio sandbox with movies like Wuthering Heights and The End of Oak Street. Even their franchise films, like the Dune sequels, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Superman had the clear creative imprint of individual creators. (Jesse Hassenger)
Your favourite literary character?Jane Eyre because she insists the world doesn’t belong to the rich, beautiful and well connected: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?” She reverses traditional gender roles and ends up rescuing Mr Rochester (I’d have left him to fester).
Thursday 8 October2pm, Brontë Space at the Old School Room7:30pm, On ZoomIn this talk, we will look at some of the other men - including friends, neighbours, colleagues and teachers - who helped shape the lives, works and legacy of the Brontë family.October’s Thursday Talk will be delivered by teacher and Museum volunteer, Peter Lodge.
David McKay will speak at the Brontë Parsonage Museum on Wednesday, October 7, as part of an event exploring the translation of The Song of Stork and Dromedary, an award-winning novel by Dutch author Anjet Daanje.The event 'Bringing the Brontës Home with David McKay' will take place at 6pm in the Brontë Event Space in the Old School Room. [...]The novel, widely acclaimed in the Netherlands and described by some critics as "the best Dutch novel of the century," is inspired by the life and legacy of Emily Brontë.It follows Eliza May Drayden, a fictionalised version of Emily Brontë, whose controversial novel Haeger Mass is initially condemned as immoral before being recognised as a masterpiece.Told through 11 interconnected chapters, the story unfolds through letters, notebooks, biographies and the accounts of individuals whose lives intersect with Drayden’s across generations.The novel explores themes of love, loss, memory and storytelling, arguing that stories can preserve human experience long after death.Much of the narrative takes place in Bridge Fowling, a fictional stand-in for Haworth, placing the Brontë sisters’ world at the heart of the story. (Amelia Short)
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Organized by El Instituto de Investigación de Literaturas en Lengua Inglesa (IILLI) y la cátedra de Literatura de Lengua Inglesa de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras (FFyL) of Uncuyo, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo,October 7, 10-14 hFFyL , Centro UniversitarioM5502JMA. Mendoza, Argentina.La jornada tomará como eje analítico dos de las transposiciones cinematográficas más recientes de estos clásicos: la adaptación de Frankenstein dirigida por Guillermo del Toro y la versión de Cumbres borrascosas a cargo de Emerald Fennell. En lugar de proyectar los filmes completos, la propuesta se estructurará mediante la exhibición y el análisis crítico de fragmentos audiovisuales seleccionados para disparar el debate interdisciplinario.Programa y momentos del encuentroLa dinámica del homenaje estará articulada en dos instancias temáticas:
- Primer momento (Cine-debate sobre Frankenstein y Mary Shelley): Tras una contextualización sobre el marco histórico y la producción de Shelley, se abrirá un espacio de debate enfocado en la construcción del monstruo, las nociones de género, la ética científica, la exclusión social y los giros narrativos introducidos por la dirección de Del Toro.
- Segundo momento (Novela gótica y transposición de Cumbres borrascosas): Centrado en el filme de Emerald Fennell, el bloque problematizará el concepto de "fidelidad" en la adaptación cinematográfica, abordando los desafíos de traducir al lenguaje audiovisual la estética gótica, el régimen de narradores y la tensión de las pasiones y la violencia presentes en el texto original.
La actividad contará con las exposiciones de la profesora Sabrina Vallone y las estudiantes investigadoras Giuliana Coletto, Ticiana Aquila, Pilar Quiroz y Delfina Peralta, todas integrantes del IILLI. Coorganizan la iniciativa la Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria de la FFyL junto con el IILLI y la cátedra de Literatura de Lengua Inglesa.
In all, PEN found 11,982 cases of bans, affecting 7,370 individual works. Over 4,500 were on the list for the first time, ranging from the 19th century classic “Jane Eyre” to Sui Ishida's “Tokyo Ghoul” manga series.
. . . it’s impossible to ignore the call of Charlotte Brontë’s powerful writing in “Jane Eyre.” Beyond being an intensely emotional and passionate novel, its dark, mysterious Gothic setting amid pouring rain and a slight chill in the air makes it a perfect autumn read as the leaves on campus turn brilliant hues of red and gold.The novel is narrated by Jane, an orphan girl who suffers under the cruelty of her aunt and cousins, as well as in the unlivable environment of Lowood School. After leaving Lowood to take up the position of governess at Thornfield Hall, she at last begins to find joy and meaning in her life through her relationship with her employer, Rochester. What begins as an intellectual bond strengthens into a passionate and burning love that is made deeper through its transcendence from a physical connection to one of the soul. [...]Reading something like “Jane Eyre” can reveal insights about ourselves, but it is even more extraordinary when strengthened by the human connection that comes from our classes. This novel is one example of how literature and reading can communicate with us across time and space, highlighting the experiences that shape who we are. Through such compelling and moving stories, literature shows us what it means to be alive and how we create meaning in our own lives through sharing these experiences together. Whether a novel speaks about the desire to be loved or the journey to self-discovery, each book takes on unique meanings for each of us, shaping how we choose to live our lives. I might not have figured out what my favorite book is, but revisiting “Jane Eyre” at Princeton has strengthened my sense of identity and inspired me with the courage to live out the values that are important to me. (Katharine Vennink)
Author Alison Espach made the observation that to question whether Charlotte Brontë’s canonical 1847 novel Jane Eyre is a feminist piece of work is to misunderstand what feminism is. (Daisy Forbes)
“Last night I dreamed I saw Daphne again,” Danni declares as the novel opens, recalling one of the most celebrated first lines in literature. Rebecca itself is, of course, part of a complex interplay of gothic novels, from Jane Eyre to Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, each book shifting the reader’s understanding of the others. (Clare Clark)
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëWuthering Heights is not a cozy fall novel. It is dark and gloomy in atmosphere, and the themes it explores are incredibly introspective. Much of it is tragic, and the parts that aren’t are usually brutal. Despite all of that, Wuthering Heights is one of the first gothic novels, and there is never a better time to read gothic novels than October. Wuthering Heights is about a toxic love across social boundaries. Since it crosses social boundaries, Catherine, the main female protagonist, makes a choice against her heart that damns everyone around her, including herself. None of the characters are particularly likeable, and yet their story reveals to the reader many lessons and morals to follow throughout their life. And no, it is almost nothing like the movie.You should read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights because of the lessons it can teach you and the conversations it could spark between you and your peers. It is a deep novel that can provide a multitude of deep conversational topics deepening your relationships and understanding of the people and the world around you. Wuthering Heights, and literature generally, provides its reader with a new perspective through which to view the world. Since Wuthering Heights is an old novel, it can be found online in the Gutenberg Project’s library entirely for free. The Amazon Classics edition is also available on Kindle Unlimited. Outside of that, most local and school libraries carry it, it’s available on the Libby app which is essentially an online library where you can borrow copies of almost any text, and Wuthering Heights can be found at most local booksellers! (Jamie Putman)
Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/performer.Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. An extraordinary work of imagination which remains are powerful and relevant today as it did when Emily wrote it in 1845.
I have created new work for heritage spaces for many years. My first site-specific music based work was created for an early 19th century cotton-spinning mill in Manchester back in 2006. Since then, alongside my concert music, I’ve made work for Bronte Parsonage Museum, the iconic K6 red telephone box, a lighthouse and a castle keep.
Wed 7 Oct, 6:00pmBrontë Event Space in the Old School RoomAnjet Daanje's The Song of Stork and Dromedary was an unprecedented literary success in the Netherlands, winning acclaim as the best Dutch novel of this century. Inspired by the myths and magic of the Brontës, Daanje weaves an intricate web of story around Eliza May Drayden, a fictionalised version of Emily Brontë. Eliza May's story unfolds through the tales of people who met her; a passage from her controversial novel Haeger Mass; her sister’s letters; her biographers’ words; the pages of a mysterious notebook; and the lives that become intertwined with hers, even centuries later.Much of Daanje's novel is set in Bridge Fowling, a fictional version of Haworth. David McKay, who translates Daanje's work into English, faced a unique challenge. How might a translator bring a novel crafted for a Dutch audience home to the English language, to British readers, and to the hills and dales of West Yorkshire? His research took him to Haworth, the nearby moors, and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.David McKay is an award-winning translator of Dutch fiction and nonfiction. Anjet Daanje writes novels, short stories, and screenplays. Her novel The Remembered Soldier was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2026.This event is part of the New Dutch Writing programme, supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature.
'Jane Eyre' (2011)Excuse this inelegant summary, but another famous novel about “the other woman” is Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. It has been adapted many times, of course, but check out director Cary Joji Fukunaga and writer Moira Buffini’s adaptation starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Like Lowen in Verity, Jane travels to the country to take on a new job—as a governess, instead of a ghostwriter. Like Lowen, she falls in love with the man who lives there, Rochester.She also discovers some dark secrets about the family she’s stepping into and Rochester’s first wife. This story is typically considered a little more romantic than some others in the genre, but whether or not you’re rooting for these crazy kids is up to you to decide. (Leah Marilla Thomas)
This is some Wuthering Heights level melodrama, yet actually a lot more sophisticated than the Emerald Fennell film, although the final resolution here contains too many multiple improbabilities to detail.
Wuthering Heights 2026This one is still very fresh in people’s minds, given it was released on Valentine’s Day earlier this year; writer/director Emerald Fennell’s “adaptation” of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights had controversy almost straight away, not least with the casting of Margot Robbie – who was considered older than Cathy – and, in particular, Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, with accusations of whitewashing.Then, on the film’s release, many took exception to the darker, more sexual tone, as well as Fennell’s “reinterpretation” of the book, saying she couldn’t just remake it, but rather interpret it from the perspective of someone experiencing the book. Even the quotation marks around “Wuthering Heights” in the title were seen as Fennell deliberately signalling that this is her own take rather than a definitive screen version. Its 56% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes showed how divisive it was, with as many five-star reviews in the mix as one-star ones. (Scott Davis)
‘Wuthering Heights’ (2026) Cathy Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have a bond that began in childhood and strengthens as they grow into young adults. They clearly love each other, but they can’t quite seem to acknowledge it. When Cathy marries the wealthy Edgar (Shazad Latif) to save her home, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff leaves, only to return a few years later, wealthier and more handsome than ever. Their love still burns brightly, but will Cathy’s marriage and Heathcliff’s stubbornness stand in the way of their happy ending? Adapted from Emily Brontë’s classic Victorian novel, this Wuthering Heights isn’t for purists or lovers of traditional BBC costume dramas. Director Emerald Fennell’s takes some pretty bold swings, including adding a lot of overt eroticism and not-so-subtle kinky foreplay that’s definitely not present in the original text. The result is a love story that’s occasionally goofy, kinda absurd, but always entertaining to watch, thanks to its gorgeous, color-saturated visuals and decent lead performances by Robbie and Elordi. (Blair Marnell)
Steinbeck’s East of Eden has been a personal staple in Kazan’s life. She first read the book at 15, immediately impacted by the story and characters. “There are just certain books that hit you so hard,” she says, also naming Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby as others that did the same. (Lexy Perez)
Celebrities were feeling bookish at Sunday’s Valentino show, as Alessandro Michele’s latest fashion week guest list arrived at the library.For the show, which was held at the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, the designer asked guests to bring a favorite book. The halls of the centuries-old building — the first public library in France — brought back memories for Naomi Watts.“I can’t remember the last time I went into a library,” she said, waxing nostalgic. “I remember this is what we used to do to study. We’d come and rifle through the shelves to find all the information that we needed, and you know it took hours of dedication. And now we just press a button, and it’s sad. So I feel emotional actually being here.”She brought a copy of “Jane Eyre,” which she called her “first love” and a classic she has never gotten over. (Rhonda Richford)
'Jane Eyre' (1847)Jane Eyre is an autobiography about a woman who does not actually exist. The eponymous Jane Eyre is an orphan who has grown up with her abusive aunt, forcing Jane to grow up quickly and learn to fend for herself. She eventually finds work as a governess to a ward named Mr. Rochester. Jane and Mr. Rochester do end up developing feelings for each other, but this is impeded when Jane uncovers terrible secrets about Rochester's family history, compelling her to choose between her own pleasure and her own morality.This is a very early feminist novel that happens to be a romance. Though it is largely about love between a man and a woman, it is also about a woman's search for individuality, equality, and personal freedom. This is one of those books that went on to establish itself as a literary classic, so much so that there are still high school and university kids writing book reports about it to this day. It's such a masterpiece of fiction, and a super important romance novel for beginners to read. (Dawson Nyffenegger)
Carlsbad Playreaders presentsby Sarah GordonDirected by Kim StrassburgerOctober 5, 2026 at 7pmSchulman Auditorium, Carlsbad City LibraryCharlotte Brontë has a confession about how one sister became an idol, and the other becameknown as the third sister. You know the one. No, not that one. The other, other one… Anne.This is not a story about well-behaved women. This is a story about the power of words. It’sabout sisters and sisterhood, love and jealousy, support and competition. Sarah Gordon’s newplay is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters, and the story of thesibling power dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame.
I knew that the film was going to play it safe, unlike the disastrous Wuthering Heights, which was more of a TikTok event for broken young people happy for English literature to be destroyed for a director’s fantasy. (Daniel Hart)
I’ve had three very different experiences with period dramas over the last 12 months, which has made me wonder if the cinematic landscape of this genre has changed for good. The first was Wuthering Heights, a clear assault on the source material.
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëYou might have seen the film adaptation of Wuthering Heights this February, but I can assure you the book was nothing like the film. Better, more thought-out, and a direct way to understand the lengths people will go to for revenge, this classic novel makes for the perfect fall read, easy to pick up in a free moment to escape to life in the rainy English countryside, channeling all the fall vibes. (Zara Saliba)
‘The Wife Upstairs’ by Rachel HawkinsThis chilling tale—a dark reimagining of the classic Jane Eyre—follows Jane, who is new to Birmingham, Alabama. She spends her days working as a dog walker in a rich neighborhood, hiding her identity and stealing from the homeowners. Then she meets wealthy—albeit mysterious—man named Eddie Rochester and her life takes a dramatic turn. Now she’s living in his house and feeling haunted by his late wife, Bea, who died in a boating accident. As time goes on, Jane begins investigating what really happened to Bea, and deadly secrets emerge. (Carissa Mosness)
Quel a été le point de départ de Je dont les deux lettres renvoient au roman culte de Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre ?C’est parti d’une situation qui m’est arrivée, du sentiment d’être enfermée dans une histoire, du fait d’avoir douté de ma santé mentale à un moment de cette relation. J’ai repensé alors à Bertha, ce personnage secondaire de Jane Eyre, cette première épouse, cette "folle du grenier" qui hante la demeure de Rochester. En relisant le roman, j’ai eu le sentiment que son histoire n’avait pas été racontée. On n’a que le point de vue de Rochester, et les raisons de son enfermement sont très floues.J’avais envie de comprendre et de décortiquer les mécanismes de destruction d’une femme tels que je les avais vécus et, en même temps, de montrer la triste banalité de tout ça. Les manipulateurs du sentiment amoureux ont toujours existé. En deux siècles, les mécanismes ont peu changé, et c’est pour cela qu’on peut se reconnaître même aujourd’hui dans un personnage du 19e siècle.Qu’est-ce qui vous a frappé à la relecture de Jane Eyre ?D’abord qu’on ne sait pratiquement rien sur Bertha, seulement ce que Rochester veut bien en dire. Ce qui m’a frappée, c’est sa présence fantomatique, et le fait que Jane Eyre commence elle-même à penser qu’elle est folle. Elle entend des bruits étranges, des pleurs… et on ne lui explique rien.C’est frappant ça aussi de constater que cet homme-là, Rochester, qui a visiblement des raisons objectives d’enfermer son épouse chez lui, n’en parle pas ; il la cache, y compris à la femme qu’il dit aimer ou du moins qu’il a envie d’épouser. Il y a dans le comportement de Rochester des choses très troublantes, et même préoccupantes.À la fin, d’ailleurs, il dit "Je voulais être bigame, je voulais avoir deux femmes". La présence diffuse de Bertha dans le roman sert à retranscrire l’atmosphère gothique, mais elle est presque une mise en garde pour Jane Eyre. Elle est aussi le reflet de ce qu’elle pourrait devenir. Cette lecture-là, je ne l’avais pas eue plus jeune, j’étais restée très premier degré, mais en réalité, la version que nous propose Rochester ne tient pas debout…Vous insistez sur le fait qu’il ne s’agit absolument pas d’une réécriture de Jane Eyre.C’est important de préciser que c’est un roman qui ne demande pas d’avoir lu Jane Eyre, ni même La Prisonnière des Sargasses, le livre de Jean Rhys écrit en 1966 autour du personnage de Bertha. Dans Je, il n’y a quasiment aucune scène en commun avec Jane Eyre. Parce qu’en fait, ce n’était pas mon sujet. J’aurais pu écrire ce livre totalement aujourd’hui, cela n’aurait rien changé, et personne ne m’aurait rien dit, bien au contraire. Mais j’ai trouvé que c’était de la facilité et surtout que ça ne racontait pas ce que j’avais vécu.Ce sont les livres qui m’ont aidée à m’en sortir et notamment celui-là, parce qu’il y a eu, chez moi, une sorte de projection sur Bertha. Et en racontant son histoire à elle, j’ai réussi à me raconter. Je est fait du regard que je porte sur le personnage inventé par Charlotte Brontë. Tout comme Jean Rhys a projeté sur Bertha un morceau de sa propre vie et de son époque. Ce qui fait d’un livre un classique, c’est la surface de projection qu’il nous offre et sa capacité à questionner un siècle ou cinq siècles plus tard. Un livre dépend totalement de la manière dont on le lit, de l’époque à laquelle on le lit, et de la période à laquelle on le lit au cours de sa vie. (Francesca Mantovani) (Translation)
Erläuterung und Anleitung finden Nora bei Jane Austen und Anne Brontë. (Regina Bärthel) (Translation)
For this year’s Victober, I’m taking a closer look at Anne Brontë’s second novel, a book about marriage, motherhood, alcoholism, infidelity, independence and a woman making the extraordinary decision to leave her husband.But how much of the story came from Anne’s own experiences?In this video, we’ll look at Anne’s time at Thorp Green, Branwell Brontë and his struggles with alcohol, the real-life stories that may have influenced Anne, and the woman who came to Haworth seeking Patrick Brontë’s advice about her own troubled marriage.We’ll also look at the reaction to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall when it was published, Anne’s fascinating defence of her novel, and why Charlotte Brontë had very different feelings about her sister’s book.So, make yourself a brew and settle in for a look at one of Anne Brontë’s most fascinating, controversial and often overlooked novels.If you enjoy Brontë history, Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Victorian literature and the stories behind the books, I hope you’ll enjoy this one.
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Written by Charlotte BrontëAdapted for the stage by Darcy Blair, Lancia Berglan, and Mikala NovitskyOctober 3, 8, 9, 10 at 7pmOctober 10 at 3pmStoryteller Theatre OKC, 1319 NE 23rd St, Oklahoma City, OK 73111, USAA sweeping and intimate adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s enduring novel. Jane’s journey of resilience, independence, and love unfolds in a richly atmospheric story of passion and principle.
The company presents the production on KFOR, Looking out 4 You! Oklahoma’s News Channel 4
Wuthering Heights (2026)Over the years, there have been several adaptations of Wuthering Heights, the iconic 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. The latest high-profile release was this 2026 version starring Margot Robbie as Cathy Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Directed by Emerald Fennell, the new take on Wuthering Heights is sexy, intense, surprising, and utterly haunting. (Felipe Rangel)
The visual palette was truer to my vision of Austen than could perhaps be expected in the world of Bridgerton and Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, even if there were a few more stray strands of Elinor’s hair (Daisy Edgar-Jones) than suited her character. (Felice Basbøll)
Autrice d’It Ends with Us, de Regretting You et de Reminders of Him, tous trois adaptés à l’écran, la prolifique Colleen Hoover aime traiter de sujets graves sous le couvert de la romance ou du thriller psychologique. C’est dans ce second camp que se situe Verity, thriller domestique où l’on retrouve de (très) faibles échos de Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë, de Rebecca, de Daphné du Maurier, et de Gone Girl, de Gillian Flynn. (Manon Dumais) (Translation)
The latest adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” won over young women. When it comes to building a guaranteed hit, a library card just might be the most valuable asset in town. (Christofer Hamilton)
at a flat on Chelsea Embankment in the centre of the capital, where more than 400 of the books the performer owned are on display at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation. Or, nearly; the library, assembled by the artist Alex Margo Arden, comprises volumes of the same age, edition and condition as Winehouse’s ones, though none of them were actually ever in her possession. Arden calls them “parallel objects”. [...]Most of the volumes are out-of-print paperbacks with glossy, candy bright covers. They have little resale value so Arden struggled to track them down online. There are themes: books about Hollywood (biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Dean Martin, Alfred Hitchcock); about music (Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley, Peggy Lee); about gangsters (Ronnie Kray); and a few literary choices: Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. (Evan Moffitt)
And as for favourite books that have helped shape her as publisher and would feature on her desert island reading list?“The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Going To Meet The Man, by James Baldwin, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte,” she adds. (Dan Carrier)
The perfect combination between Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Darcy Van Poelgeest's Little Bird is the perfect read for fans of gothic dramas. Gothic drama thrives on psychological torment bred inside desolate, storm-swept estates. The oppressive interplay between isolated spaces and human madness is vividly captured by the classics born from the English countryside. Set against an untamed Yorkshire landscape that directly mirrors the destructive obsession between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights pursues vindictive cruelty within a haunted family line. Romantic devotion leads to ruin, while familiar domestic walls offer no escape from misery. (Nicolas Ayala)
Sun 4th Oct, 2pmLincoln Arts Centre, The Blue Room, The Lawn, Union Road, Lincoln, UKGothic fiction fans are in for a treat as we revisit the timeless works of Emily Brontë.Led by gothic fiction specialist Dr Tim Rideout, Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature Dr Claire O’Callaghan will be in conversation with bestselling author Essie Fox. O’Callaghan, who is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of the Brontë Society, examines the enigmatic author through an accessible, modern lens in her biography, Emily Brontë Reappraised.And Fox will be introducing her latest novel Catherine – a hauntingly beautiful retelling of Wuthering Heights from the perspective of Catherine Earnshaw’s ghost.
When Emerald Fennell released her cartoonish take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, she explained its squishy, S&M silliness as being an adolescent fever dream. Yet, if teenage rebellion were the aim, that other Brontë novel of 1847 might have made a more likely candidate. I refer, of course, to sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre: that manual for how a young woman might live – and love – independent of social norms.This is why news that the text has been made compulsory for Chinese 14 and 15-year-olds comes as something of a surprise. The Communist Party made clear that this is to steer “the innocent, budding stage of first love”. So Brontë’s classic is now a conformist dating manual.One wonders whether anyone in President Xi’s regime has read the novel. From the moment Jane fights back against her tyrannical male cousin, toeing the party line is emphatically not our heroine’s thing.Instead, Brontë’s tale is one of constant rebellion against the conventions of love, work, society – whatever worldly authority is imposed. Contemporary critics linked the narrative to the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848. Jane was not only a proto-feminist, but a red under the chaise longue. However, she would be just as likely to rebel against the Five-star Red Flag as she would the domestic autocrat.This, after all, is a heroine who proclaims: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you – and full as much heart! … I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal – as we are!”The man she addresses is rich and powerful; her employer has cross-dressed to flirt with her, while concealing his wife in the loft. It’s complicated, as contemporary parlance goes. Yet, what is never complicated – or compromised – is Jane’s autonomy.The first and foremost lesson our roving rebel gives us is to love – or rather respect – oneself. In her life’s great crisis, beset by the thought “Who in the world cares for you?”, comes the “indomitable” cry: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” A woman who has been haunted by beggary chooses vagrancy rather than terms she cannot accept.Still, Jane determines that she will be loved body, brain and soul – or not at all. When offered the passionless union proposed by priggish St. John Rivers, she refuses to countenance such emotional deprivation. Rivers is what Love Island contestants refer to as “good on paper”, but intolerable in the sack.Instead, Jane’s devotions are to, first, another female (the doomed Helen Burns); second, a man who married for money, abandoned a vulnerable wife, shagged his way around Europe, attempted bigamy, and was rendered maimed and vulnerable.Behold, another love lesson: the right person, may be she/he that society deems wrong. Cathy baulks at Heathcliff. Jane embraces a castrated Byronic hero: mastering her master in a domesticity in which they can at last be equals.When Jane declares: “Reader, I married him,” it is a triumph of radical self-assertion. Chinese educationalists may believe they’re signing up for Victorian values. However, in Brontë’s moral bruiser, they’re getting a counter-cultural heroine who would have no truck with Marxist-Leninist axioms or Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream”.And how glorious this will prove: another generation of freedom fighters becoming Eyreheads.
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is an unlikely heroine for a state seeking to teach young women a moderate face of feminism and the value of domesticity. Plain, financially constrained, lacking in social capital she might be, but Brontë’s heroine wasn’t short on self-awareness. She declares, “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss.”It is probably this insistence on equality that has lent the novel such appeal in China since it was first introduced in translation in the early 1920s. Now, however, the Chinese state has made it mandatory reading for ninth-grade students, arguably for quite different reasons: Beijing is waging an uphill campaign against plummeting birth and marriage rates. A 19th-century romance, with its promise of true love and a value system oriented towards home and hearth, could work as useful propaganda. In this modernist state re-reading, Eyre is rebellious, but not irredeemably so; independent, but not averse to settling down; outspoken, but unmistakably feminine. She is proof that a woman can have a mind of her own without turning her back on the domestic.And yet, there are postscripts to this reading. Marriage at the end of Jane Eyre is undergirded by clarity. Eyre walks away from it when staying would have meant becoming lesser, unequal. Only later, with an inheritance of her own and the independence it guarantees, does she return to Rochester. Love becomes, in Brontë’s telling, a choice, not a surrender. Perhaps that is the lesson young readers will take away from it.
Where “Wuthering Heights” left me angry, this Netflix Original has restored my faith in adapting classic literature. (Kate Sánchez)
How could any contemporary adaptation of East of Eden not linger on Cathy? After decades of perspective-shifting literary retellings like Wide Sargasso Sea and The Mists of Avalon and the current trend of feminist Greek myths, Cathy is an enigma begging for some traumatic backstory to staple her flaws together. (Kathryn VanArendonk)
Unless explicitly said
